For the past five days, much has changed, with a growing chorus of critics depicting Israel as an incompetent leader who should be removed from office by the governor or resign in shame.

It’s far too early to predict the denouement of Israel’s decades in law enforcement and two terms as sheriff. But scrutiny and political controversy is guaranteed to swirl around him for months, and years, to come.

“One of the dangers is when people bring you up as a hero, people are going to want to bring you down. That’s politics,” said Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies who specializes in politics and voting at Nova Southeastern University.

“What’s inevitable is looking for scapegoats,” Zelden said. “He’s in a very vulnerable position. Because ultimately this was on his watch in his county.”

Cynthia Busch, chairwoman of the Broward Democratic Party, said the whiplash-fast turnaround in the way some are talking about Israel, an elected Democrat, reflects the “hyper media” world, often exaggerated and intensified by people pushing hidden agendas on social media.

In recent days:

-- Social media pilloried Israel for an unusual answer he gave Sunday morning when CNN’s Jake Tapper wondered if the Sheriff’s Office “had done things differently, this shooting might not have happened?”

Israel’s response: “Listen, ifs and buts and candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books.” It echoed the line “If ifs and buts were candies and nuts we'd all have a merry Christmas,” sometimes paraphrased by former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and used on TV years ago by “Monday Night Football” announcer Don Meredith.

Tapper told Israel, “I don’t know what that means. There's 17 dead people, and there's a whole long list of things your department could have been done differently.”

-- National commentators and media outlets have gone from hanging on Israel’s every word to assailing him.

Conservative John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine and a New York Post columnist, described Israel as someone who “not only is a moral credit but sounds like an actual cretin” and called him “the man who oversaw the greatest failure in American law enforcement in our time.”

A headline in the left-leaning HuffPost used the term “skewers” to describe the Tapper interview. The unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain described the back and forth as Tapper “eviscerates” Israel.

-- State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Delray Beach, called on Saturday for Gov. Rick Scott — who early in the aftermath of the massacre stood beside Israel before television cameras — to remove the sheriff from office.

On Sunday, a majority of the Republicans in the Florida Legislature followed up with their own call for Israel’s suspension.

“With recent calls for removals and/or suspensions from office, today Broward County lawmakers ask for patience and a thorough examination of the facts and circumstances before anyone, at any level of government, is publicly scorned or accused of dereliction of duty,” the Democrats wrote on Monday.

The confluence of two events appear to have hastened the change in mood about the sheriff. First, in a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, Israel went head to head with NRA national spokeswoman Dana Loesch. The sheriff advocated forcefully for restrictions on firearms. Second, on Thursday Israel disclosed that a deputy assigned to the school didn’t enter the building to confront the killer.

The sheriff’s office has also been faulted for fumbling advance warnings of the shooter’s threatening behavior, including statements from people close to him that they feared he might go on a shooting rampage. Since 2008, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said it responded to 23 incidents involving the shooter or his family.

Over the weekend, House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, and 73 other Republican state representatives asked the Republican governor to “immediately” use his power to suspend Israel for “incompetence and neglect of duty.”

Scott didn’t directly respond to the Corcoran request, explaining in a statement that he asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. The Florida Constitution allows the governor to remove constitutional officers for incompetence or malfeasance, among other things.

Farmer said the Corcoran letter is “purely political document.” He and other Democrats said Republicans are going after Israel because he dared to cross the National Rifle Association.

Corcoran, who can’t run for re-election because of term limits, is widely seen as a likely candidate for the Republican nomination for governor. Scott, who also can’t run for re-election because of term limits, is expected to challenge U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

Farmer said the Republicans call for the governor to remove Israel is an attempt to “pivot attention away from gun safety legislation in any way they can…. They’re trying to hold out any kind of shiny object that they can trying to distract people from the root common denominator, which is assault weapons and the lack of other safeguards like background checks.”

Busch said talking about removing Israel ““is not going to solve the problem. We have children in Broward County who are afraid to go to school. We have parents in Broward County who are afraid to send their children to school, and we have a Republican Party that stands for putting more guns in the schools.” Busch was referring to President Donald Trump’s advocacy for an NRA proposal to arm teachers.

On CNN, Israel said Hager’s missive was “a shameful letter. It was politically motivated.”

“That’s total nonsense,” Hager said Monday. “This has nothing to do with politics. To me, the political affiliation didn’t even cross my mind. What crossed my mind was the facts as they unfolded.”

He said there has been such a “gross breach of responsibility” on Hager’s part that there must be consequences.

In 2011 and 2012, before Israel was elected sheriff, Hager’s district included a sliver of northern Broward County. Israel and Hager both said they don’t know each other.

Moraitis not signing

One name is conspicuously absent from the Republican lawmakers’ demand that Scott remove Israel: state Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale.

Moraitis, the only Republican in the state Legislature who lives in Broward County, said he didn’t want to do anything to politicize the Stoneman Douglas shooting. He didn’t sign either of his colleagues’ letters.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel was at the center of attention during a news briefing about the Stoneman Douglas massacre on Feb. 15, 2018, in Parkland. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at left and Gov. Rick Scott at right.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel was at the center of attention during a news briefing about the Stoneman Douglas massacre on Feb. 15, 2018, in Parkland. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at left and Gov. Rick Scott at right.

(Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

He was one of only two Republicans in the House who didn’t sign the letter asking Scott to remove Israel. “I think it is premature to call for his removal at this point,” he said.

Moraitis, who is term-limited, said he supports the governor’s call for the FDLE investigation to find out “exactly what happened with the idea of holding those responsible accountable.”

“I just think anybody’s entitled to have an investigation, and I don’t think it should be a partisan issue,” he said.

Election consequences

Israel, now 61, was a lifelong Republican until 2007, until then-Gov. Charlie Crist picked someone else to serve as interim sheriff. One of the references Israel used at the time he was seeking the appointment was Chip LaMarca, then chairman of the Broward Republican Party and now a county commissioner.

After becoming a Democrat, Israel lost the 2008 election by 2.26 percentage points. He ran again in 2012 and won by 6.18 percentage points. He didn’t face serious opposition in 2016 and won re-election with 73.2 percent of the vote — 45 percentage points ahead of his challenger.

Some have speculated, in private, about Israel’s prospects if he chooses to seek re-election in 2020.

Political leaders and elected officials said it’s too early to know the answer — and thatit’s a grossly insensitive question to ask less than two weeks after the massacre.

Moraitis, who is chairman of the Broward Republican Party, said the question is not something he is contemplating. “Anybody’s performance is certainly appropriate to be considered in an election. But at this point, I’m interested in learning what happened so we can prevent it from happening again,” Moraitis said.

Farmer also said it’s too early to assess any political fallout for Israel. “I’m not even thinking about that. I don’t think anybody should be thinking about that,” he said.

Even though he and Israel are both elected Democrats in Broward, Farmer said he wasn’t out to help Israel politically. He said the sheriff had supported one of his opponents in the 2016 Democratic primary.

Ron Gunzburger, general counsel for the Sheriff’s Office and a veteran political strategist, said in response to a text message inquiry that the sheriff’s team is concentrating on work related to the investigation and does not have the time or interest in “discussing politics right now, nor would it be appropriate.”

Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine, who represents Parkland and whose daughter and niece are Stoneman Douglas students, said it is wrong to think about Israel’s future.

“This is so much bigger than Sheriff Israel in my mind,” Udine said. “Honestly, from my perspective, I could care less about any of the politics surrounding the whole thing. I’m thinking of this as a father and somebody with kids in that school as and as a member of that community.”